The Portland daily press., 1887-04-12
WHOLESALE ARRESTS.
A Daring Gang of Railroad Robbers
in custody.
Half a million of Dollars Stolen by the
Panhandle Employees.
Nearly All the Freight Men of the
Line Involved.

morning. They will not be completed before
late this afternoon, and at that time the Off
GERS of the Panhandle railroad will have in
custody the most daring gang of railroad
robbers this country has ever known. How
many members belong to it are not known,
but they run up to the hundreds. Their
stealings and the amount stolen reaches to
nearly half million of dollars. Simulta-
neous arrests were made an along the line OF
the road between here and Columbus. War
rants have been in the hands Of the officers
for some time, and the persons arrested will
comprise nearly the entire freight men of
the line. They include the conductors,
brakemen, engineers and firemen. The first
ing, the police surprising eighteen men at
their boarding houses. The men were taken
at once to Jail.
Further arrests were made between 2
o'clock and daylight, when 46 men, all rail-
road employees, conductors, brakemen, fire.
men and engineers were behind the bars In
speaking of the arrests, a prominent officer
OF the road said: For three years past, the
Panhandle road has been Systematically
robbed. Cars on sidings and cars in moving
trains were broken open and goods stolen,
including every description Of merchandise.
1t is estimated that at least 100000 worth
Of goods were stolen, for which the company
had to pay. In August last we got a clue
and the company determined to push it, To
this end detectives were employed who fol-
lowed every scent and finally we had infor-
nation upon which to proceed. When ev-
erything was ready we decided to make a
move all along the line from Columbus to
PlttsDurg, and o'clock this morning was
sfxed to strike the blow.
About eighty warrants were issued for
men In Plttsburg. can't tell how many for
other places, but it was at every point along
the line. 1t will run up int hundreds. 1t is
the biggest thing of the kind that ever hap
pened In Pittsburg or in railroad matters In
the world, for nothing like it has ever hap
pened before. l can't tell who the men are
under arrest, nor who the leaders are. This
much will say, however, we suspect out
slders Of being implicated, but know moth
ing positive.
About the Panhandle yards today there
was scene of unusual quietness. Crews Of
men that had been arrested had left a large
number Of trains deserted. There were "a of
these trains packed closely together on side
tracks in the yards. The detention of
freight, however, was only temporary. Rail-
officers had taken special precautions to con-
flnue fnnue moving freight promptly An extra
were put on the deserted trains in place of
the arrested employees. When it became
generally known that large number of men
had been arrested applicants for positions
commenced to flock to the depot by the
pennsylvania railroad, who has been chiefly
instrumental in running the thieves down,
says: Eastern bound trains were not mo-
Tested. The western bound trains nave
been the sufferers. AS near as we can esti-
mate it these robberies have been going on
two years. After most exhaustive search
of the entire division of the Pennsylvania
railroad into Pittsburg, came to the con-
clusl0n that the rObberies were committed
west of Pittsburg.. We then devoted our
m lxr fo tnxr rfcfn g
ter two months work we found the robber-
les were committed between Pittsburg and
Dennls0n, that out of so crews IS were prac-
tlcing gigantic scheme of robbery. We
were badly stalled at first by the fact that
the seals on the cars were generally found
intact when the cars reached Columbus on
the way westward. The seal is of lead
about the size of a five cent piece and is
about one-eighth of an inch in thickness.
The wire used in connection with it is an !.
one-slxteenth inch iron wire. There are
cnrls In IL to prevent its being pulled
through the lead seal. The method of using
tits as follows: The wire is passed through
the seal, then through the hasp of the car
doors, then back through the seal again,
thus forming an unbroken circle The in
strument then is used in impressing the
seals. That in use, say in Pittsburg, stamps
the inverse side letters, "PG. T.R.," and
upon the observe side, "P. ST. L." thus in
dicating that the car is intact when it enters
l.. y. anu OF. L. H.. NJ, DOunu westward.
TWO wires are imbedded at the same strike
as the letters are imprinted. One dark
night one OF our brightest men stumbled
against the mystery of the seals, and
the method by which they were successfully
tampered with. Concealed behind car he
The wire was pulled out of the seal, the door
thrown back and the car entered. In short
time they emerged, carrying lot of plunder.
They made off to the caboose and the con-
ductor pulled back the door. ran the wire
through the seal where it had been pulled
out, and with board struck it blow. The
wire went back to its place, the blow
united the soft lead again without destroy
ing the lettering on either side and the seal
was apparently untouched, The individuals
OF these crews were then each of them
tracked down and so closely were the stolen
goods located that out of the arrests we
made last night and this morning there was
not one man but had stolen stuff either upon
him or in his room. We now have our hands
IN every thievish employe ,and are in easy
reach OF those not arrested. The combina-
tion to rob the freight train necessitated q
guilty knowledge and actual partici-
patton Of the conductor, the mid die
brakeman and rear brakeman or flagman.
IL did not of necessity take in the front
brakeman or hagman, nor engineer, or fire.
man. Government bonded cars were broken,
perhaps, oftener than ordinary Union line or
common freight cars. In these the thieves
always knew they could get choice goods,
silks, cigars, rifles, all kinds of imported fire.
arms and caddies of tobacco. Boxes of shoes,
and general run of merchants supplies
for every day use were found openly in the
caboose cars of each train. Hundreds of
boxes which had contained the finest of i'm
ported cigars were found on these trains
boldly used by the men to hold their caps
and Overalls, and lanterns and waste stuff.
Almost every man arrested had from one to
ten pawn tickets for all sorts of articles ON
his person.
The most important arrest made here was
Brakeman Young. He called at the Jail to
see one of the prisoners this morning and
was Immediately locked up. At first he pro-
tested he was innocent, but finally admitted
that he had a large lot of stolen property at
his house and told low the goods had come
into his possession. His confession will, 1t
is said, convict 13 crews. Telegrams from
Cadiz, Steubenville, and points west of
Columbus report the arrest of large num-
Der of railroad men implicated in the rob
berry. A preliminary hearing will be held
on the 18th.
At later hour tonight. J. r. Dunlap, who
is regarded as the riugleadel of the gang,
made a confession to the detectives, in
which he implicated several outsiders and
located "faces" at Dennisin, Apo, New Phil
AlnI,f md al ,1la 20 n,